Two of a kind

Just some days back when the popular Nigerian activist Gani Fawehinmi rejected a National Honour,the one known for white hair and beards who wouldn't have them cut,Nobel Laureate,Wole Soyinka has also rejected a prize money of National Merit Award whose plaque he said he'll hold.

The rejection has it grounds on his disappointment in the Supreme court verdict of validation of the April '07 polls.According to him,his decision to accept the award initially was that "the NNMA is an honour bequeathed by one's own peers and not a political award, unlike the National Honours, which has turned into another annual jamboree of government".

Noting he has nothing personal against the President,he declared "I would stop calling him a Presidential Incumbent and address him as President Yar'Adua, but he still remains the beneficiary of stolen goods, while the principal robber is former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The Supreme Court did not only hurl away the only opportunity of starting on a clean sheet, but is opening the floodgate reactions to electoral abuse like the one that took place in Jos. The Jos incident began with agitation after a sense of being robbed and the Supreme Court judgment has opened the door to recalls of that violent kind, because the citizenry has lost faith in the ultimate arbiter and protector of justice".

On that note,he cannot fully accept the merit award but for the solidarity of his colleagues and return the prize money to charity with believe that the institution that requires this charity most at the moment is the Supreme Court to return something missing there. He however,pointed that we have all been wounded by this institution, which requires healing and his decision to return the prize money is because of his deep respect for the National Merit Award, but "I am today existing in a failed state. If the agency of justice failed, then we are all existing in a failed state" he said just as Gani also said“Put simply, the Federal Government is a total failure, worsened by lack of direction and leadership. Is this the atmosphere for the award of national honours? Certainly not.”

When reminded that the Supreme Court ruling was by a narrow majority, Soyinka suggested that maybe the prize money could be used to buy bulletproof jeeps for the judges who gave the minority report.